Mary G. Murphy is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s San Francisco office and is a member of the firm’s Land Use and Development, Real Estate, and Sports Law Practice Groups.
Mary represents a wide variety of developers and investors in real estate transactions and land use issues, with particular experience in public and private partnerships and historic rehabilitation projects. She has strong development experience within San Francisco and around the Bay Area, including extensive experience in significant and historic public/private development deals.
Mary has received numerous local, state, and national honors, including:
- The Legal 500 U.S. named Mary to its "Hall of Fame," having recognized her as a Leading Lawyer for Real Estate – Land Use/Zoning since 2017.
- Expert Guides named Mary to its 2021 and 2022 Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law.
- Chambers USA as a Band 1 Lawyer in California – Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use.
- Daily Journal as a 2017 California Lawyer of the Year.
- San Francisco Business Times named Mary to the list of "100 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business" several times, and was elevated in 2017 to their “Forever Influential” status.
- Euromoney LMG Americas Women in Business Law award in Real Estate.
- Best Lawyers consistently named Mary a Best Lawyer in Real Estate.
- Who's Who Legal recognized Mary in 2023 Real Estate
Highlights of Mary’s representations include:
- Serving as lead counsel to the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team in its efforts to develop a new major league baseball stadium. Mary is representing the A’s in the efforts in Las Vegas, Nevada and previously assisted the A’s in working on a stadium and ancillary development in Oakland, California at Howard Terminal, owned by the Port of Oakland.
- Representing Brookfield Properties in its proposed redevelopment of the Stonestown Galleria shopping center on the west side of San Francisco into a new mixed-use development with over 3000 new housing units. The redevelopment proposal includes a rezoning of the site and a development agreement with the City of San Francisco.
- Represented the Golden State Warriors in their successful entitlement of a new event center and mixed-use development in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco, including successfully defending the entitlements and CEQA analysis pursuant to AB 900, an expedited judicial review process for CEQA cases and recently successfully entitled a further development of a hotel at the site.
- Represented Treasure Island Community Developers in its successful negotiations to redevelop Treasure Island, a former naval base in the San Francisco Bay. The Treasure Island project is a complex, multi-year, multi-phase development project involving federal, state and local components. Mary continues to represent Treasure Island in the implementation of the project along with the Gibson Dunn team.
- Represented Build, Inc. in the successful entitlement of a 1575 unit mixed-use development project with over 15 acres of public use space in the India Basin area of San Francisco.
- Lead counsel in the successful entitlement for the redevelopment of the 312 acre Parkmerced residential development in San Francisco.
- Represented Related Company in its 9 million square foot development in Santa Clara, including negotiating a development agreement and related documents and, with the Gibson Dunn team, is assisting in implementing the project.
- Represented Cedar Fair, the owner of the Great American Theme Park in Santa Clara, in the acquisition of its property.
- Representing Interfaith Chapel at the Presidio in its negotiations for a ground lease and a related development project at the Presidio.
- Represented Sports Basement in its negotiations pertaining to its lease in the Presidio.
- Represented Fortress Investment Group in its efforts to redevelop the Oakland Coliseum City site as a home for the Oakland Raiders.
- Counsel to URW, formerly Westfield America, the developer of the $420 million public/private retail and entertainment complex, the Westfield San Francisco Centre, an urban 1-million-square-foot retail and entertainment complex, and representing Westfield in its efforts to redevelop a portion of the Centre. Mary also assisted Westfield in its acquisition of the 350,000-square foot SONY Metreon, an urban dining, gaming, music, exhibition, shopping, and movie entertainment complex, located in downtown San Francisco.
- Represented developers in the public/private partnership with the Port of San Francisco, the rehabilitation of Piers 1 ½, 3 and 5, a historic waterfront property, and was lead counsel to the developers of the San Francisco Ferry Building, a national historic landmark. In 2003, this project was named "Deal of the Year" by the San Francisco Business Times. Both waterfront projects were federal historic tax credit projects.
- Other important historic building rehabilitations in which Mary was legal counsel include the original Bank of Italy Building (One Powell Street), the old San Francisco Chronicle Building (690 Market Street, San Francisco's first skyscraper), the Mutual Bank Building (700 Market Street), the Call Building (74 New Montgomery), and the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building (140 New Montgomery), all located in downtown San Francisco.
Additional relevant information about Mary includes:
- Appointed by both Presidents Clinton and Bush, Mary served two terms on the Presidio Trust Board, a United States Government Corporation established by Congress in 1996.
- Mary recently stepped down from her role as the co-chair of the Bay Area Council Housing Committee, as well as a member of the Board of Directors and sits on the Executive Committee of Advance SF (formerly the Committee on JOBS).
- Mary recently concluded her role on the Board of Trustees of San Francisco Planning & Urban Research and is a former board member of the San Francisco Boys & Girls Club, Hamlin School for Girls, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the Drew School in San Francisco.
- She is also a former San Francisco City Commissioner, having served on the San Francisco Board of Appeals, which hears, among other things, appeals from the Planning Commission and Zoning Administrator.
- Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mary was a partner at a San Francisco firm, as well as a law clerk for Judges Cecil F. Poole and James R. Browning of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Mary received her law degree from Harvard University, cum laude, in 1986. She was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated from Oxford University with an Honours B.A. in 1983. She received her B.A., cum laude with distinction, from Yale University in 1981.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Harvard University - 1986 Juris Doctor
- University of Oxford - 1983 Bachelor of Arts
- Yale University - 1981 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- California Bar
Clerkships:
- US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, Hon. James R. Browning, 1986 - 1987
- US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, Hon. Cecil F. Poole, 1986